Theories are lacking for fires near Warren JFK’s football field

By Ed Runyan

Five fires have been discovered near the practice football field in 15 months.

WARREN — For the second time in three months, the athletic department at John F. Kennedy High School is buying more athletic equipment after an arson in a storage shed.

“It’s very discouraging,” said the school’s athletic director, John Gillen.

He did not have an estimate for the amount of equipment that burned Saturday morning, but the fire department estimated the loss would be in the thousands of dollars.

After a July 1 fire in a 12-foot-by-24-foot building near the practice football field near the high school destroyed the building and its contents, the school replaced it with a metal one.

But apparently the building was unlocked when someone entered it early Saturday because there was no indication of forced entry, said Warren Fire Chief Ken Nussle.

Because the building is metal, it survived the fire mostly intact. But everything inside that was not metal was destroyed, he said. The building housed new track hurdles, other track equipment and other sports equipment, Nussle said.

Nussle and Gillen said they have no theories as to who may be responsible.

“I have no idea who or what or why,” Gillen said.

The school is on Central Parkway Southeast.

After an inventory was done of the July 1 fire, officials turned in a claim to the school’s insurance company for about $15,000.

Nussle said fires associated with JFK sports equipment actually date back to Aug. 1, 2007, when a soccer net hanging on a goal on the practice football field was burned.

On May 14 this year, wooden pallets on the ground near the practice football field were burned, Nussle said.

And on Friday — about 30 hours before the shed fire — firefighters responded to a burning tarp left hanging over a fence by the football practice field.

In all cases, the fires were discovered between midnight and about 7 a.m., Nussle said.

runyan@vindy.com